Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program
Ag Tramlines- Could They Be Useful in the Southern Plains?
Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:09:42 CST
One of the interesting things that Class XV saw while in Scotland rolling across the countryside were numerous winter wheat fields with tracks clearly seen on a regular basis across the fields. Class XV member Bryan Vincent who works with Crop Production Services and lives in Tonkawa was very interested as he saw what he called "tramlines." They are placed in the fields to give a path for ag chemcial and fertilizer application without tearing up the crop and concentrating any soil compaction to just those pathways.
According to information from United Kingdom Agiricultural resources, "Tramlines are parallel lines in crops that allow farmers to drive through their fields to fertilise and spray accurately without causing damage to surrounding plants. The lines of a tramline are usually about 30 cm wide and 2 metres apart while the distance between tramlines can vary from 12 metres to 30 metres."
"The benefits of a tramline: the end of the sprayer boom is able to accurately follow the crop and therefore prevent application of the spray onto the grass margin that runs alongside. Without a tramline the operator would inevitably weave in and out as he attempted to stear a straight line through a field. This would result in some areas being oversprayed and some undersprayed, both wasteful and inefficient."
While that can also be accomplished by using GPS, Bryan Vincent argues that the soil compaction issue- along with not tearing up any more of the crop than absolutely necessary, allows one to make a real case for Tramlines.
Bryan Vincent talked with us over this past weekend about what we saw in the fields of Scotland- and how that could be applied back in Oklahoma in several situations- including winter wheat, winter canola and even other crops that are being no tilled.
In addition, we found the YouTube below from AgPHD- it offers more ideas regarding Ag Tramlines.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below the video to hear that vist between Ron Hays and Bryan Vincent.
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